omgeol questionable behavior

[hyojungss]

 ok not the list i thought i'd be making at the beginning of the night but i've wanted to do this for a long time lol

disclaimer that most/all of these are disputed and the most reliable source of info is people of the culture that was used, and it's difficult to tell which sources are reliable

• release of windy day (2016) and the media label of "curry-dols". performed curry by norazo at fanmeeting (still on their youtube channel), performed stereotypical actions and wore/imitated items of cultural significance at fansigns. in a 2019 newsade episode to describe the word curry hyojung said "the song we performed at our fanmeeting before," which isn't perpetuating the stereotype but it does suggest that it's not a part of their history that she doesn't want to acknowledge, ie, she doesn't see a problem with it. soompi summary, thread. i was told they did a stereotypical indian motion for windy day again in 2020 (kcontact) and hyojung called a dance yooa did during an mv reaction indian (2020). [for context: curry is a popular song in korea that is widely associated with the food curry, despite its harmful stereotypes about indian people. among others, weki meki have danced to it, svt sang it -- and after a clip of wonwoo singing a bit (2020) was widely discussed internationally and an older clip of svt was dug up, norazo actually apologized for the harm done by the song and its original intentions (pledis didn't make any statement though)]
• yooa's solo debut concept and promotional imagery (2020) drawing accusations of cultural appropriation of native americans and/or indigenous japanese culture/religion. two discussion posts from indigenous people: one (emphasis on use of war paint), and its follow up post, and two (regarding the impact of stereotypes). interestingly the response from non-natives (i assume) has been pretty highly positive for its "worldly elements" (as well as her dance and vocal work), example one. aside from those posts there are some that have come up in defense but i found them to be pretty insensitive to the feelings of the indigenous authors so i decided not to include them here, but can be found through google search. consensus seems mixed on this overall. yooa seemed to describe the concept as "wolf child" and there was no explicit mention of native americans/NA culture, but as post one stated that was beside the point due to the harmful enforcement of stereotypes. i'd agree that i'd much rather have seen a take on this concept that didn't rely on indigenous stereotypes but have seen arguments against that too (because the worldly elements add to the concept's presentation). other examples on OMG_CALLOUT, which shows a pic of dreamcatcher imagery on the background of one of her stages
• in 2016 on the show girl spirit seunghee did a michael jackson medley stage and wore an afro for part of it
• for the guerilla stages on queendom (2019) and kcon:tact (2020) they wore south asian (or reminiscent of, inspired by) jewelry/headpieces (bindi, maang tikka, matha patti)
• on variety (2020) seunghee did a promotion of a burrito using mexican stereotypes. i don't think anyone disputes this one as being offensive (i haven't watched it), the youtube channel that posted this segment removed it and posted an apology referencing the fact that it was not intended to be offensive and that seunghee was informed iirc.
• when describing shindong on a game (2020) hyojung made a motion referring how he used to have more weight on him, widely decried as fatphobic and hurtful to shindong and his body image. both this and the previous point elicited a lot of negative sns feedback which arin's brother addressed on his ig, saying that neither were intentionally hurtful and that he'd like the issues to be addressed calmly due to the level of hate leveled against the members 
• in 2016 yooa + mimi (on radio), and in 2020 seunghee (during variety karaoke) covered black happiness by yoon mirae, which is a song about her experience being half-black in korea. discussion post about why it feels like it's not the right thing to do -- quick google search brings up examples of sonamoo newsun and wjsn exy covering it too.

ultimately i will repeat a sentiment that is clear from other examples of offensive behavior that did elicit apologies from the entertainment companies in question: an apology will only be given by a company when the offended market is a big enough portion of the group's target audience. i am not saying this is right, i am saying this is how it is.

twt account covering most idol groups' cultural insensitivity/appropriation: problematicidod. i think this is really important context b/c it shows how many groups are guilty of these actions and i think a lot of this gets buried. also another useful link regarding indigenous CA specifically and the extent of it in kpop: sourfavewantstobeindig.carrd.co

obviously most of omg's egregious actions are well known now, but personally i think they get villified by people who like groups that have done similar things, especially after their nonstop rise... just one quick scan through the oh my girl racist twitter search will show that to you... people who don't know a thing about the group except for their stan twt reputation of being racist. omg have some pretty extreme and visible examples, but in my opinion because they did not realize the insensitivity due to the culture they live in and because their stages are directed by their company, who is completely ignorant of international fans' desires, they as people aren't much more guilty than their peers, who have dressed up and done the same dances but in less formal settings, and yet aren't put on blast 24/7 for their past actions in a way that prevents people from feeling comfortable being the groups' fan.

i don't approve of the actions done by omgeol because they have deeply hurt people, which is why i've listed them out and tried to work through their damage. i think it's the acknowledgement of what they've done that is crucial for fans because the ignorance of it all has hurt minority kpop fans just as much as the actions themselves have. also, a lot of their antis right now are ignorant of their growing reputation in korea and domestic, objective success on the charts and in the minds of the korean public -- very nice (relative to korean culture) girls who are well loved by their seniors (iu), peers and juniors (loona, fromis etc). because people in their highly homogenous home country do not care about these issues, and while that is not morally right of them, it means that omgeol, consisting of all korean members and with a target audience highly focused in korea, does not have a sounding board that has actually, and reliably told them that these actions are wrong. these girls are under the impression that people who comment about their racist actions are just haters, and have no proper communication with people who could clarify otherwise, and were not allowed to apologize personally regarding any of these incidents although some of them were acknowledged. international fans who did care about the hurt these actions have caused and made efforts to contact the company were burned by the total lack of response. international fans are not on wment's radar because we are a tiny fraction of their domestic audience right now, and nothing we have or can presently do will change this.

Comments

[lapiscave]

i love this post it's a good summary of everything and i totally agree with your points. it's really quite unfortunate that there is no way to hold idols accountable without just spreading widespread rumours and hate that may not ever affect them/their success because the companies will not feel a need to respond to ifans unless they see them as vital to their revenue. and, if they were to respond, the korean fanbase would get Mad at the company for heeding ifans "unreasonable complaints" and so we can't get anywhere... the aspects we can fault here are 1. korean (east asian, really) societal norms bc 95% of people don't understand why any of this is bad 2. the company for not taking action because they believe it would hurt them more than not 3. the girls themselves for ultimately dismissing it as haterz and having repeat offences after the initial spamming blowup. and now that they have this reputation and wm will never make any apology, even if they do have a change in perspective and are more vigilant (apparently wm hired a cultural advisor? but idk) the rep of omg racist will follow them everywhere bc of past events. basically: rip!

[hyojungss]

yea i forgot to mention that their kfans will actively call the company and ask them not to apologize LMAOO. "they believe it would hurt the girls more to apologize" ouch... also as we know ppl had already written them off after 2016 but we gave them the benefit of the doubt and now its pretty impossible to do that